office of international education, university at … · bits campus in dubai, united arab emirates....

UB INTERNAUB INTERNAUB INTERNAUB INTERNAUB INTERNATIONALTIONALTIONALTIONALTIONALO F F I C E O F I N T E R N A T I O N A L E D U C A T I O N , U N I V E R S I T Y A T B U F F A L O

Dalai Lama to receivehonorary degree.............2

Tibet: Myth and RealityCourse..............................3

Tibet-in-Buffalo FilmFestival.............................4

Law, Buddhism andSocial Change.................5

Informatics Symposium....6

Naples at Risk.................7

Kenyan Graft Buster..........8

Johnstone Retiring..........9

Humboldt Award..........10

Chancellor's Awards.....11

Global Performing Arts..12

Senegal Program..........13

Hindrawan Honored.....15

ELI's 35th Anniversary..16

International Activitiesof Faculty & Staff.........19

Directory........................23

C O N T E N T S

S P R I N G 2 0 0 6 VOL. XV, NO. 1�

UB INTERNATIONALVisit the Office of International

Education website at:

http://www.buffalo.edu/intled

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Professor Satish K. Tripathi, Provostand Executive Vice President forAcademic Affairs, during a two-

week visit to India in late December-earlyJanuary, established agreements withseveral leading Indian institutions ofhigher education to promote academicand research collaboration with UB.

Accompanying Tripathi on his firstmajor overseas tripsince becoming pro-vost in July 2004 washis wife Kamlesh, andProfessor Stephen C.Dunnett, Vice Provostfor International Edu-cation.

“Our visit to Indiawas extremely busyand most produc-tive,” said Dunnett. “Iwas especially im-pressed by the qual-ity of the institutionswe visited. Our tripgave UB a strong foot-hold in the highereducation sector ofthis rapidly develop-ing country. I see great potential for fu-ture collaboration with our Indian part-ners,” he added.

The first major stop was Amrita Uni-versity (Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, orAU) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu State, inSouth India. Building on UB’s participa-tion in the Indo-US Inter-University Col-laborative Initiative for Higher Educationand Research with Amrita (see UB Inter-national, fall 2005, p. 9), Tripathi signeda memorandum of understanding be-tween the AU School of Business and theUB School of Management to establish adual-degree Executive Master’s degreeprogram in IT Enabled Services, to beconducted at the AU School of Business

campus in Banglore, India.This program is expected to be launched

in fall 2006 and will enroll managers inBangalore’s booming IT sector, where thereis a huge demand for such a program. Sign-ing the MOU on behalf of the School ofManagement was Professor RamaswamyRamesh, chair of the Department of Man-agement Science and Systems, which will

administer the dual-degree program on theUB side.

Signing for Amrita was Vice-ChancellorVenkat Rangan, the institution’s chief execu-tive officer, who visited UB last year. It is ex-pected that the MOU with Amrita will beexpanded to include other dual-degreemaster’s programs as well as exchangesand joint research in management and en-gineering.

The provost visited several Indian insti-tutes of technology and science, includingthe Indian Institutes of Technology inMumbai and Chennai, to discuss potentialresearch collaboration with UB.

In Allahabad in central India, the provostsigned an MOU with the Indian Institute of

PROVOST FORGES NEW PARTNERSHIPS IN INDIA

Provost Tripathi at the MOU signing ceremony at Amrita University

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Information Technology to initiateexchange activities and researchcollaboration in the areas of com-puter science and informationtechnology.

The delegation also had meet-ings with the leaders of the BirlaInstitute of Technology and Sci-ence (BITS) in Pilani, north ofDelhi, regarding a possible coop-erative undergraduate educationprogram between UB and theBITS campus in Dubai, UnitedArab Emirates.

Another pending agreement is under negotiation withBanaras Hindu University (BHU), a leading public univer-

sity in Varanasi, one ofIndia’s most important re-ligious and cultural cen-ters. BHU would offer anew study abroad destina-tion for UB students, andopportunities for joint re-search and exchange forUB faculty.

The trip also tookTripathi to Singapore,where he had the oppor-tunity to visit the UB un-dergraduate programs atthe Singapore Institute ofManagement and to in-teract with UB alumni. He

also visited Nanyang Technological University, UB’s ex-change partner in Singapore. �

His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama willreceive an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Lettersfrom the State University of New York during his

three-day visit to UB in September.The Dalai Lama was informed that he will receive

SUNY’s highest accolade in a letter from President John B.Simpson also written on behalfof SUNY Chancellor John Ryanand the SUNY Board of Trustees.

“The University at Buffalo isproud to offer you this honorarydegree in recognition of yourpowerful leadership and teach-ings as one of our time’s mostvocal and consequential advo-cates for world peace, religioustolerance and cultural under-standing,” Simpson said.

“As a dedicated agent ofpositive social change and en-lightened world leadership, youprovide, through your own in-spiring example, the means ofcreating a lasting, pervasivesense of global communityamong all peoples.”

Noting UB’s strong commit-

ment to international education and exchange, and tiesto institutions of higher education around the world,Simpson added: “We take inspiration from your efforts asa spiritual leader, teacher and scholar to promote greaterunderstanding and tolerance among the peoples and na-tions of the world.”

The honorary degree will beconferred upon the Dalai Lama,who received the Noble PeacePrize in 1989, during a programon September 19 at which he willdeliver the first lecture in UB’s2006-07 Distinguished SpeakersSeries before an audience at UBStadium anticipated to be as largeas 30,000.

“Promoting Peace Across Bor-ders Through Education” will bethe theme of the Dalai Lama’s visitto UB on Sept. 18-20. In additionto the Sept. 19 lecture, the DalaiLama also will participate in an in-terfaith service in Alumni Arena onSept. 18, a special meeting withUB students, and an internationalconference on Law, Buddhismand Social Change. �

HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA TO RECEIVE HONORARY DEGREEDURING VISIT IN SEPTEMBER

Signing ceremony at Amrita (l to r): Ramaswamy Ramesh,Venkat Rangan, and Satish Tripathi

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Tibet: Myth and Reality, a special Asian Studies/His-tory course was offered by Professor Thomas W.Burkman, director of Asian Studies, every Wednes-

day throughout the spring semester as part of theuniversity's preparation for the visit by His Holiness the

14th DalaiLama of Ti-bet on Sep-tember 18-20, 2006. Some 100s t u d e n t sand 50 com-m u n i t ymembers at-tended thecourse. Financials u p p o r tfrom thePresident’soffice hasenabled theAsian Stud-

ies Program to secure some of North America’s leadingscholars and speakers on a wide variety of Tibet-relatedtopics, including history, art, religion, economy, society,law, and relations with China.

Much attention was devoted to Buddhism and the spe-cial expressions of that religion which are found in Tibet.

One of the speakers, Dr. Thupten Jinpa Langri, whowill accompany the Dalai Lama as interpreter when HisHoliness visits UB in September, commented that in all hisvisits to universities he has never encountered a Tibetcourse so comprehensive.

What attracts many people, including those from theUB community, to the subject of Tibet is the way in whichspirituality colors so many aspects of the society. While theimprint of Buddhism is real, the Tibetan expression of italso generates a body of mythology about Tibet asShangri-La, a utopia on earth.

The course has informed students about ecology, lifechains, competing sects and political views, the non-Bud-dhist bon religion, and variant visions about how Tibetshould adjust to modernity.

While the coming of the Dalai Lama to Buffalo is alandmark event that will draw attention to Asia, it is onehigh point in a steady implantation of Asia in the Univer-sity and in Western New York. Asian Studies has seen dra-matic growth in the past decade. For example, the num-ber of faculty whose teaching and research focus is pri-marily on Asia has more than tripled since the Asian Stud-ies Program was initiated in 1993.

Introduction: Myth and Reality and TibetThomas W. Burkman, UBReflections on a Visit to TibetJeffrey Albert, Foit-Albert Architects and Engineers

Land, Livelihoods, and EnvironmentsKenneth Bauer, D.Phil. candidate, Oxford UniversitySienna Craig, Ph.D. candidate, Cornell University

Premodern History, Matthew Bingley, Ph.D. candidate,University of Iowa

Tibet from the Perspective of ChinaTibetan-Chinese Relations in Historical PerspectiveRoger Des Forges, UB Department of HistoryPerspectives on Tibet in Contemporary Chinese FictionHerbert Batt, independent scholar

Buddhism, Jeanette Ludwig, UB Department of RomanceLanguages and Literatures"The Story of Buddhism and its Core Teaching""The Three Vehicles"

Tibetan Buddhism, Ivette M. Vargas, Austin College"Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism: Religious History, Doc-trines and Politics;""Tibetan Nuns, Buddhist Practice, andProtest in the film 'Satya'"

The Dalai Lama, Thupten Jinpa, Institute of Tibetan Clas-sics, Montreal, Canada"The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhist World""Understanding the XIVth Dalai Lama"

Art History, Melissa Kerin, University of Pennsylvania"The Iconography of Vajrayana Buddhism""A Case of Mistaken Identity"

Tibetan Society, Jan Willis, Wesleyan University"The Myth of Shangri-la and Realities in Tibetan Societyand Culture;" "Nuns in Contemporary Tibet"

Law and Society, Rebecca French, UB Law School"How Law Codes Were Written;" How Law Works in Tibet"

Health and Healthcare, Richard V. Lee, UB School of"Medicine and Biomedical Sciences"Constituents and Concepts of Traditional Medicine""The Tibetan Tradition"

Current Political Status of TibetClaude Welch, UB Department of Political ScienceRinchen Dharlo, President, The Tibet Fund"Human Rights;""Opportunities for Tibet-China Dialogue"

Dr. Thupten Jinpa Langri (Photo: NPR)

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Martin Scorsese’s film “Kundun” opened the Ti-bet in Buffalo Film Festival on March 9, the firstfilm in a special series showcasing some of the

best films about the Dalai Lama, Tibet and Tibetan Bud-dhism.

A near-capacity audience of 300 participated in theopening event, and subsequent screenings throughoutMarch and April were also well attended.

The film festival is one of a series of events being heldin conjunction with the visit of His Holiness the 14th DalaiLama to UB September 18-20. Each screening was intro-duced by a relevant expert, including UB faculty andalumni as well as local filmmakers and film critics.

“The series presented a mix of feature and documen-tary films in order to provide a variety of cinematic per-spectives on Tibet,” said John Wood, associate vice pro-vost for international education and a member of theplanning committee for the Dalai Lama’s visit.

“We see the Tibet-in-Buffalo festival as an importantway to raise awareness about His Holiness and Tibet inanticipation of the visit by His Holiness in September.”

A highlight of the series was “Mirage in New York,” afilm directed by Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan filmmakerand 2005 graduate of UB. “Mirage in New York” wasfilmed as Wangchuk’s graduate thesis.

Wangchuk is one of a number of Tibetan graduatestudents who have come to UB to study media study.These graduates play an important role by using modernmedia to educate and raise awareness about Tibet.

The Tibet-in-Buffalo Film Festival was held at the Mar-ket Arcade and Arts Centre in downtown Buffalo. A com-mentator introduced each film. Martin McGee, a localfilmmaker who has visited Tibet and produced films aboutTibet and Tibetan Buddhism, served as one of the seriesorganizers.

Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor andSamuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the UBdepartments of American Studies and English, and DianeChristian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of En-glish, who co-direct the Buffalo Film Seminars at the Mar-ket Arcade, introduced the first film in the series.

Directed by Scorsese, a five-time Academy Awardnominee, “Kundun,” 1997, is the true story of the DalaiLama’s struggle to rule a nation from which he was forcedto escape in 1959. Powerfully told and set against a back-drop of world politics, the film created an internationaluproar.

Tibet-inTibet-inTibet-inTibet-inTibet-in-Buffalo Film F-Buffalo Film F-Buffalo Film F-Buffalo Film F-Buffalo Film FestivalestivalestivalestivalestivalThe other films in the festival represented a range of

genres and subject matters:

♦ Wheel of Time, 2003, directed by Werner Herzog. Thisscreening marked the Buffalo premier of Herzog’s recentfilm, which documents a Kalachakra Initation, the largestBuddhist ritual to promote peace and tolerance, held bythe Dalai Lama in India and Austria in 2002, and featuresexclusive interviews with the Dalai Lama and secret ritualsthat have never been shown before on film.♦ Devotion and Defiance, 2004, International Cam-paign for Tibet. This film chronicles the recent crackdownon Buddhism in Tibet and examines the complex struggleof monks and nuns determined to practice their faith.♦ Himalaya, 1999, directed by Eric Valli. A visually strik-ing and spiritually captivating portrait of life in one of theworld’s most extraordinary places, “Himalaya” is both in-tense drama and a gorgeous tapestry of the fast-disap-pearing traditions of Tibetan life.♦ Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy, 1993, directed by EllenBruno. Deeply personal and lyrical in style, this documen-tary focuses on the testimonies of Tibetan nuns, revealingcontinued religious oppression and human rights abusesin occupied Tibet.♦ Escape from Tibet, 1997, directed by Nick Gray. Adramatic documentary that reveals for the first time theescape route used by thousands of Tibetan refugees flee-ing Tibet.♦ The Cup, 1999, directed by Khyentse Norbu. Set in aTibetan monastery-in-exile in India, the movie follows afew young monks whose devotion to Buddhism is onlyrivaled by their fervor for soccer.♦ Mirage in New York , 2005, directed by TashiWangchuk. The fascinating story of a group of young Ti-betans living in New York City and the inner struggle of itsmain character to come to grips with lost love and themystical nature of existence and rebirth.♦ The Knowledge of Healing, 1996, directed by FranzReichle. An illuminating examination of Tibetan medicine,featuring the Dalai Lama, his personal physician Dr.Tenzin Choedrak and physicians from India to Siberia whopractice this method of healing.♦ Windhorse, 1998, directed by Paul Wagner. Based ontrue events, the film focuses on the lives of three peoplewho as children witnessed the murder of their grandfa-ther. �

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LAW, BUDDHISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

By Laura Mangan

A beautiful Italian villa overlooking Lake Como in Italy was the venue for the most recent meeting of the Law and Buddhism Project.

Launched in Buffalo by UB Law professor RebeccaFrench, the project began in 2004 with the aim of estab-lishing a new subdiscipline — Law and Buddhism.

The Law and Buddhism Project has been supported byUB Law School’s Baldy Center for Law and Social Policysince its inception and the Baldy Center supported thefirst meeting on “Locating Law in Buddhist Societies” thatinaugurated the project in June 2004.

Two years later in March 2006, French organized aconference held in Bellagio, Italy, under the auspices ofthe Rockefeller Foundation and cosponsored by the BaldyCenter. Participants from around the globe met to presentand discuss their research on aspects of “theft” in Bud-dhism legal systems and an edited anthology of the pro-ceedings of this conference will be published.

A third conference, Law, Buddhism, and SocialChange, will be held from September 20-22 at the LawSchool in conjuction with the Dalai Lama’s visit to UB. Thisconference aims to examine aspects of social change,governmentality and legitimacy in the context of severalBuddhist Asian states as well as what it tells us about socialchange in current U.S. politics.

It is anticipated that His Holiness will inaugurate theconference on September 20th with a discussion withleading scholars and practitioners focusing on the confer-ence theme.

Scholars of Buddhism, experts in Asian legal systems,and noted philosophers of law are expected to attend theconference. Among the questions to be considered arethe following:

• How has Buddhism affected governments and legalsystems, and conversely how have governments and sys-tems of laws affected the ideas and practices of Bud-dhism?

• What does a Buddhist view of government, or a legalsystem in and through Buddhism, look like?

• What is the current Buddhist position(s) on socialchange to alleviate suffering? Should the government at-tempt to make society better through extensive politicaland legal intervention or through no intervention at all?

• What about the Buddhist instruction to each individualto achieve enlightenment?

• The TIbetan Constitution for the Government-in-Exile

The gardens and villa of the Rockefeller Foundation overlook Bellagioand the lakes.

has been a template for legal and political change withinthe refugee community, but is a western-style constitutionin some ways at odds with promoting Buddhist forms ofsocial change?

Coinciding with the visit by the Dalai Lama and theconference on Law and Buddhism, French plans to teacha entirely new Law and Buddhism course during the fallsemester. This will be, she says, "the first course on Bud-dhist law that has ever been taught in the world."

"Students from across the university will be able to takeit. Students will learn about Buddhism, and look at howBuddhism is structured in terms of secular legal systemsall over the world," she notes.

Looking ahead, French says she ultimately aims “tocoordinate all of the Buddhist lawyers in the U.S. and helpbeing people together to introduce compassion and Bud-dhism to the American legal system.” �

Laura Mangan is associate director of the Baldy Center.

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INFORMATICS HOSTS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUMBy Patricia Donovan

At an international invitational symposium held atUB in May 2006 medical and informatics researchers explored the uneven diffusion of evidence-

based mental health treatment information throughoutthe world.

They considered how to address this problem hroughdevelopment, adoption and use of medical algorithmsand by bringing best practices in treatment, in conve-nient algorithmic form, to medical practitioners at thepoint of care, wherever that may be.

The symposium, “Diffusion, Adoption and Mainte-nance of Psychopharmacology Algorithms,” sponsored bythe School of Informatics and the International Psychop-harmacology Algorithm Project, was held at the Univer-sity Inn and Conference Center near the University atBuffalo North Campus.

In addition to a keynote address by Ted Shortliffe, thefather of medical informatics, speakers included distin-guished medical and informatics researchers from UB,Stanford University, Columbia University, the University ofBeijing, the University of Toronto and other major researchinstitutions.

W. David Penniman, dean of the School of Informatics,points out that differences in mental health care fromone place to another—even within countries or regions—is a problem recognized by the World Health Organiza-tion, the National Institute of Medicine, the AmericanMedical Association and many other entities.

Biologically based illnesses like schizophrenia, obses-sive-compulsive disorder and bi-polar disorder are diffi-cult to treat successfully if the health-care provider is un-aware of current best practices, which is difficult in iso-lated regions of the world.

Nevertheless, widespread regional warfare, natural di-sasters and geographical dislocation can produce illnessesthat can be both acute and chronic, such as post-trau-matic stress disorder and clinical depression.

“One of the most effective ways for even the most in-experienced health-care practitioner to decide with con-fidence which drug or other therapy is likely to reducesymptoms of mental illness is through the use of medicalalgorithms,” Penniman says.

Medical algorithms are decision-making trees basedon mathematical outcomes that lead a practitioner stepby step through evidence-based treatment plans.

Medical algorithms were first devised with the assis-tance of computer technology by Shortliffe, now Rolf H.Scholdager Professor in the Columbia University Collegeof Physicians and Surgeons, where he chairs the Depart-

ment of Biomedical Informatics. He is one of the mostinfluential biomedical scientists in the field.

“Although a number of organizations develop prac-tice guidelines and treatment algorithms, including thosefor the treatment of mental illness, their diffusion and useis minimal,” Penniman says, “and this produces very un-even levels of quality of care throughout the world.”

Hence the need for the symposium, where experts ininnovation diffusion, informatics, persuasion technologyand knowledge translation, continuing medical educa-tion, decision-making and algorithm development canexplore ways in which this information-diffusion problemcan be addressed most effectively.

“The final product of this convocation will be a docu-ment reflecting the participants’ findings and insights intothe issue of achieving algorithm usage and maintenance,”

Penniman says. “The document will be created by ateam of participants assigned this duty prior to the meet-ing,” he adds. “This product will be distributed interna-tionally. Equally important is the prospect of new alliancesand cooperation among those interested in the advance-ment of evidence-based medicine.”

Presenters from UB included Arun Vishwanath, assis-tant professor, School of Informatics, who addressed theprocess of information diffusion as it relates to treatment-evaluation mechanisms.

Stephen L. Dubovsky, professor and chair in the De-partment of Psychiatry, UB School of Medicine and Bio-medical Sciences, was part of one of the select panels.

Bruce A. Holm, professor of medicine and senior viceprovost at UB, where he serves as executive director ofthe New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformaticsand Life Sciences, hosted a post-symposium brunch andtour of the Center of Excellence on May 7.

Medical informatics is a field of study concerned with abroad range of issues in the management and use ofbiomedical information, including medical computingand the study of the nature of medical information it-self—in this case, psychiatric information.

It deals with the resources, devices and methods re-quired to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval anduse of information in health and biomedicine.

Health informatics tools include not only computers,but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies,and information and communication systems. �

Patricia Donovan is a senior editor for University News Ser-vices.

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By Ellen Goldbaum

Recently discovered geological and archaeologicalevidence is shedding light on acatastrophic eruption at Mt.

Vesuvius during the Bronze Age thatwrought broader destruction to sur-rounding areas than the famousPompeii eruption of AD 79, accord-ing to a paper published in the Pro-ceedings of the National Academy ofSciences (PNAS).

The authors suggest that this eventshould be a reference for current haz-ard planning for metropolitanNaples, Italy, home to 3 millionpeople.

The discovery reported in this pa-per is the first volcanological and ar-chaeological evidence that Vesuviusever produced an eruption thatstrongly affected the area now occu-pied by metropolitan Naples, said co-author Michael F. Sheridan, UB Dis-tinguished Professor in the Depart-ment of Geology, College of Arts andSciences and director of thedepartment’s Center for Geohazards.

“We didn’t know that the city ofNaples would be so threatened,”said Sheridan, a volcanologist andrisk-analysis expert. “We never hadevidence for a blast extending intothe Neopolitan area and beyond it.”

An eruption of this magnitude would cause devastat-ing upheaval in socio-economic terms, Sheridan said,since the densely populated metropolitan area now is thelargest in southern Italy.

He said that while there may not be a high probabilitythat events like the Bronze-Age eruption or the eruptionthat buried Pompeii in AD 79 are going to occur in thenear future, officials must still take those possibilities intoaccount.

“There was this Bronze-Age eruption about 4,000 yearsago, and then 2,000 years ago there was the AD 79 event.It seems that just about every 2,000 years, there’s been amajor eruption of this scale at Vesuvius,” said Sheridan,who has studied all of the major eruptions at Vesuviusgoing back to the birth of the volcano 25,000 years ago.

“Using a standard statistical test, there is more than a50 percent chance that a violent eruption will happen atVesuvius next year,” he said. “With each year that goesby, the statistical probability increases.”

NAPLES AT RISK IN NEXT VESUVIUS ERUPTION

Discovery of the societal effects of the Bronze-Age erup-tion was made by a multidisciplinaryteam of archaeologists and volcanologistswho co-authored the PNAS paper withSheridan. The co-authors are GiuseppeMastrolorenzo, senior researcher, andLucia Pappalardo, researcher, at IstitutoNazionale di Geofisica e Volcanologia-Osservatorio Vesuviano, and PierpaoloPetrone, technical administrator at theMuseo di Antropologia, Centro Museidelle Scienze Naturali. Based on archaeological findings, suchas evidence of the abrupt abandonmentof huts, as well as skeletons of people andlivestock buried beneath more than onemeter of pumice, the team memberswere able to reconstruct a chronology ofwhat happened during the eruption. Perhaps the most extraordinary find-ing was what the authors call “decisiveproof of a massive exodus” from thearea, demonstrated by the finding ofthousands of human and animal foot-prints, embedded in the wet volcanic ashand leading away from the volcano. The paper contends that most of thepeople who left probably survived be-cause the early parts of the eruption con-sisted primarily of fallout of pumice, alight volcanic froth that forms during

highly explosive eruptions and which often is not lethal initself.

Nevertheless, the environmental damage, chiefly de-sertification, and the deposit of millions of cubic meters ofash and small pumice fragments likely occurred over thou-sands of square kilometers, making the area uninhabit-able for decades at the very least and practically eliminat-ing all socio-economic activities.

“This eruption is much larger than the ones that arecurrently anticipated at Vesuvius, like the eruption thatoccurred in 1631,” said Sheridan. “However, such anevent should be taken into account as a maximum prob-able-event scenario. Evacuation of 3 million people andtheir subsequent sporadic return could pose a real prob-lem that must be carefully considered in the mitigationplans.

“The question is, ‘Where do you put 3 million displacedpeople and for how long do they remain as evacuees?’”he asked.

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Footprints of two fugitives in the surgeash deposit found approximately15 km from Vesuvius (Photo: PNAS)

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In the quiet of his office in the UB Law School, MakauMutua contemplates his role in exposing an elaboratescheme of government fraud in his native Kenya,

where high-ranking officials have resigned in recentweeks, rocking the country’s ruling government headedby President Mwai Kibaki.

“I always tell my students that thepurpose for practicing law should al-ways be to work at the intersection ofpower and powerlessness, to makesure we hold accountable those whoare powerful and reduce the depriva-tion of those who are powerless,” saysMutua, professor of law who teachesinternational law and directs the LawSchool’s Center for Human Rights. “Wemust always use law for the social andpolitical good.”

Mutua has made several visits toLondon to serve as legal and politicaladvisor to John Githongo, the Kenyangovernment’s former anti-graft czar.Githongo, with the legal counsel ofMutua, first presented evidence of thefraudulent scheme before a Kenyan parliamentary com-mittee at Kenya’s High Commission in London in mid-February 2006. According to media reports, part of theevidence included secret audiotapes of high-ranking offi-cials implicated in the fraud.

Intensive media coverage of that meeting, as well as aBBC broadcast of a snippet of audiotape released byGithongo after consultation with Mutua, have sent shockwaves throughout Kenya and the international commu-nity. Public outcry over Githongo’s claims now threatensto topple the highest reaches of the Kenyan government.So heated is the political climate in Kenya that Githongoand Mutua decided to present their evidence in Londonto the Kenyan High Commission, which is consideredKenyan soil, rather than in Kenya.

“The evidence of corruption that is available againstsenior government officials is incontrovertible, over-whelming and conclusive,” Mutua says.

Central to Githongo’s allegations is a government con-tract for $37 million awarded in 2003 to a nonexistentcompany, Anglo-Leasing and Finance, to produce pass-ports for Kenya. Appointed Kenya’s anti-corruption czarby Kibaki in 2003, Githongo uncovered the Anglo-Leasingdeal in March 2004. Though the contracts listed Anglo-Leasing addresses in multiple jurisdictions, including En-gland and Scotland, Githongo was unable to trace themto an actual entity.

LAW PROFESSOR ADVISES KENYAN GRAFT BUSTER

Over the next six months, Githongo discovered sev-eral other suspect or fraudulent contracts that the govern-ment had entered into with “fictitious, nonexistent ordubious companies,” according to Mutua. Some of thefraudulent contracts and shady business contacts were in-herited from the previous Kenyan regime; other contractsappear to have been initiated by the current regime. Ac-

cording to evidence gathered byGithongo, money from the con-tracts was meant to fund the politi-cal activities of Kibaki’s ruling party.

“This is a classic governmentprocurement scam,” Mutua ex-plains. “It is the kind of script usedby many corrupt governments tosteal from the public purse. Kenyadid not invent it, but governmentofficials have used it extensively fordecades.”

This is the first time, however,that a claim of this nature has pro-duced high-ranking governmentresignations in Kenya.

According to Mutua, soon afterGithongo learned of the fraud hedisclosed it to high-ranking officials,

including Kibaki. Githongo fled Kenya in January 2005when, according to press reports, it became clear thatKibaki would not protect him. In self-imposed exile in Lon-don, Githongo is now a senior associate member at Ox-ford University.

Over the past year, Mutua has worked closely withGithongo to prepare legal documents and evidence, in-cluding evidence presented at a hearing before theKenyan parliamentary committee in London in mid-Feb-ruary. The two men have been friends and associates foryears, with each holding prominent human-rights andgovernment-reform positions in Kenya.

“It has been sobering to work with John on this issue,”says Mutua, who in 1981 was exiled from Kenya for adecade after speaking out against the country’s one-partyrule. “John has the commitment of a visionary to a Kenyafree of corruption. He is committed to renewing the prom-ise of Kenya as a democracy, and his sense of self-sacrificeis immeasurable.

“He has been uprooted from his own country and nowleads a much less exalted life far away from the comfortsof the State House in Nairobi. I think it takes a person witha singular conscience to make these kinds of sacrifices.”

Ironically, both Githongo and Mutua supported thecandidacy of Kibaki in 2002. Together they helped oustthe notoriously corrupt Kenya African National Union(KANU) regime. Githongo and Mutua’s initial support of


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By Mary Cochrane

SUNY Distinguished Service Pro-fessor D. Bruce Johnstone sayshe is looking forward to retiring

this summer so he can get somework done.

“What I really need to do and Ineed to do it desperately is to clearthis desk off,” said Johnstone, profes-sor of higher and comparative edu-cation in the Graduate School of Edu-cation, during a recent interview.

A former chancellor of the StateUniversity of New York system andcurrent director of UB’s Center forComparative and Global Studies inEducation, Johnstone announced thisspring that he will retire from theUniversity at Buffalo, but will continuehis decades-long work in international comparativehigher education finance and governance.

He may be busier than he is now. In addition to writ-ing another book (he’s written several groundbreakingones), Johnstone will continue his research, teach over-seas and mentor his remaining 16 doctoral students.

And he’s accepted a new position as distinguishedscholar leader for the Fulbright New Century Scholars(NCS) program administered by the Council forInternationl Exchange of Scholars. The NCS Program,"Higher Education in the 21st Century: Access and Equity,"will be conducted in 2007 and 2008. Participants, whowill be selected through a highly competitive process, willinclude leading scholars from around the world.

“People tend to snicker when I talk about retirementand I think with good reason,” he said with a laugh.Johnstone, a native Minnesotan with all of the expectedqualities of a true Midwesterner, has always had troublesaying “no.”

For example, his nearly 40-year journey in higher edu-cation did not begin immediately upon finishing his doc-torate. Handpicked for a “real plum job” at Penn State’sthen-new center for higher education, Johnstone insteadwent to work for then Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale of Min-nesota.

“It was an extraordinary experience. I do remember itvividly, and I have great respect for the man I still call ‘thesenator,’” Johnstone said. “But I really wanted to get backinto higher education, so after two years, I called PennState to see if that old job was still open.”

But the Ford Foundation called, asking Johnstone tohead a new, in-house study looking at tuition postpone-ment. Out of that experience came not only his first book,

but a new direction for his career.Johnstone looked forward to—atlast—working in academics. “But then I thought it was not judi-cious to go back to Penn State,” hesaid. Instead, he answered the call offormer UB president Martin Myerson,then University of Pennsylvania presi-dent, who was looking for an execu-tive assistant. Later, in 1979, Myersonrecommended him for the presi-dency of Buffalo State College, a posi-tion he held until 1988, when he wasnamed SUNY chancellor. During a brief sabbatical while atBuffalo State, Johnstone wrote his firstbook on international comparativehigher education finance, a topic thathas been at the center of his work

ever since.Which country does the best job with public higher

education?“My somewhat glib shorthand about that used to be if

you’re a really good student, you want to be British, be-cause at that time they had no tuition and extensive butvery selective financial assistance. If you were a parent,you wanted to be Swedish, because there still is no ex-pected official parental contribution anywhere inScandinavia. If you were a taxpayer, you’d probably wantto be French because it really spent the least on highereducation. And if you were an average or below-averagestudent, you probably ought to be American becausethere was the most extensive financial assistance that hadthe least to do with academic preparedness or merit.

“The latter is still the case. I think in many respects, theAmerican system stumbled into a very good pattern,” hesaid, noting other countries have adopted U.S. practicesfor course credits and degree schedules, as well as chan-neling governmentally sponsored research through uni-versities.

Today, public higher education has met several en-emies, and one of them is “us,” according to Johnstone.“We exacerbate things by our own success. We aspire notsimply to maintain our rank and position, which actually ispretty good, but we want to be better. We want to jumpthe next six ahead.”

The Graduate School of Education paid tribute toJohnstone on April 21at a special breakfast held at theCenter for Tomorrow on the North Campus. �

Mary Cochrane is a contributing editor to University New Ser-vices.

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By Patricia Donovan

Robert D. Van Valin Jr., professorin the Department of Linguistics in the University at Buffalo’s

College of Arts and Sciences, hasbeen awarded a Humboldt ResearchAward by Germany’s Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation in recognitionof his lifetime research achievementsin the field of linguistics.

The prestigious award, presentedto 62 top international researchersthis year, originates in Germany andpermits foreign academics to conductresearch at German research insti-tutes. Recipients must benominated by leading German scholars or research insti-tutions, and may use the award any time within five yearsof its receipt.

The award, which is worth about $60,000 at currentexchange rates, will fund Van Valin’s work on theneurotypology project at the Max Planck Institute for Hu-man Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.

Van Valin currently is on sabbatical in Germany for thespring semester and spent the fall semester on researchleave.

His research focuses on theoretical linguistics, especiallysyntactic theory and theories of the acquisition of syntax.He is the primary developer of the theory of Role andReference Grammar (RRG), which incorporates many ofthe points of view of current, functionally based ap-proaches to the scientific study of language, and has con-ducted research on two American Indian languages,Lakhota (Siouan) and Yatee Zapotec (Oto-Manguean).

His current research focuses on integrating insightsfrom grammatical theory and the neurocognition of lan-guage. During his stay in Germany, he is seeking to in-

VAN VALIN RECEIVES HUMBOLDT AWARD

tensify this integrative line of research bycomparing German and Mandarin Chi-nese in collaboration with the researchgroups in neurolinguistics at Philipps Uni-versity Marburg and in neurotypology atthe Max Planck Institute. He also is working on a project fundedby the National Science Foundation oninformation structure and syntax in se-lected Amazonian languages. Van Valin is co-author of Functional Syn-tax and Universal Grammar (CambridgeUP, 1984), editor of Advances in Role andReference Grammar (Benjamins, 1993),primary author of Syntax: Structure,

Meaning & Function (Cambridge UP, 1997) and author ofAn Introduction to Syntax (Cambridge UP, 2001).

His most recent book is Exploring the Syntax-SemanticsInterface (Cambridge UP, 2005). He is the general editorof the Oxford Surveys in Syntax and Morphology series (Ox-ford UP).

Van Valin has taught at the University of Arizona,Temple University and the University of California-Davis,and has been a visiting faculty member at Stanford Uni-versity, the University of California-Berkeley, the Universityof Sonora and the University of Zagreb.

Seven UB faculty members have received HumboldtAwards in previous years. In 2001, Barry Smith, SUNY Dis-tinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy,CAS, a pioneer in the field of applied ontology, receivedthe Humboldt Foundation’s $2 million Wolfgang PaulAward, the largest cash award ever given to a philoso-pher. �

Patricia Donovan is senior editor at the University News Ser-vices.

and service to the Kibaki government makes their role inexposing the current scandal particularly painful.

“John and I were part of a group of reformers thathelped the current regime come into power,” Mutua ex-plains. “That is why it is particularly disappointing thatsenior members of the Kibaki government have turnedout to be as corrupt as the people they replaced."

Whether or not the investigation eventually forces theresignation of senior officials of the Kibaki regime prior tothe next presidential election in 2007, the fall-out fromthis scandal may be enough to produce profound changes

in Kenya’s political landscape. For the first time in Kenya’s43-year history as an independent nation, the notion ofpolitical accountability may finally have started to take root.

“The most important thing is that this scandal maybegin to change Kenya’s political future,” Mutua says.

The unfolding government corruption scandal is farfrom over. The question now is whether the momentumit has created will cleanse Kenya and lead to the emer-gence of corruption-free leadership, without which de-mocracy and human rights cannot be realized in this piv-otal East African nation. �

John Dellacontrada is national news editor for University NewsServices.

LAW PROFESSORcontinued from page 8

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Maria S. Horne, associate professor of theatre anddance, and D. Joseph Mook, professor andchair of the Department of Mechanical and

Aerospace Engineering, were honored April 20, 2006 atthe annual Celebration of Academic Excellence with the2005 Chancellor’s Awards for Internationalization to sup-port new UB study abroad programs that they have orga-nized for summer 2006.

Horne’s award is for a program titled “Theatre, Cul-tures and Civilization in Romania,” a four-week program

that is expected to beconducted in July 2006for 12-15 undergraduateand graduate students.The program in Romaniawill allow students to par-ticipate in the world-re-nowned InternationalTheatre Institute (ITI), or-ganized by the ITI-UNESCO Chair of The-atre and Culture of Civili-zations in Bucharest. Mook’s program, titled“Intensive EngineeringProgram in Thailand,”

will be based at Chiang Mai University (CMU), UB’slongstanding exchange partner institution and one of theleading universities in Thailand. Some 15-20 engineeringstudents are expected to enroll in the six-week programin May-June 2006. Together with local students at CMU,the UB students will attend English-language engineeringclasses taught by Mook.

“I am delighted that Professor Horne and ProfessorMook are to receive the Chancellor’s Award this year,”said Stephen C. Dunnett, vice provost for internationaleducation. “I congratulate them on these truly innovativeprograms. They are a great addition to our study abroadofferings. I believe both programs will attract a good num-ber of students both from UB and from other SUNY insti-tutions.”

Sandra Flash, director of study abroad programs,noted that UB is able to offer such an impressive portfolioof exchange and study abroad programs thanks to suchcreative and dedicated faculty members as Horne andMook.

“Our faculty’s commitment to developing and leadingexciting new overseas programs has not only greatly en-hanced opportunities for students to gain critically impor-tant international experiences, but also revolutionized ourapproach to study abroad through the delivery of short-term, discipline-specific programs,” Flash said.

The Chancellor’s Award for Internationalization was es-

FACULTY RECEIVE CHANCELLOR'S AWARD FOR INTERNATIONALIZATION

tablished in 2004 by the SUNY Office of International Pro-grams (OIP) to support the development of short-term,overseas academic projects in less commonly traveledcountries. The award includes a grant of $8,000, which isused to defray the costs of developing and administeringthe programs, and thereby reducing the cost charged toprogram participants.

Twelve grants are awarded each year. Last year, UBfaculty received three awards, the highest number inSUNY. With two awards in 2005, UB is again first amongSUNY institutions in terms of the number of awards re-ceived.

The awards are part of SUNY System Administration’slong-range plan to internationalize the State University.To that end, OIP created an annual peer-reviewed com-petition to award grants system-wide for the developmentand implementation of innovative, study-abroad projects.

The program in Romania, which will be conductedprincipally in Bucharest and Sinaia, represents a uniqueopportunity for students to gain hands-on experiences asparticipants and practitioners in performing arts produc-tions, working with counterparts from many other coun-tries who attend the ITI-UNESCO workshops.

Participants will study the complexity of the interna-tional theatre scene dur-ing intensive interna-tional drama workshopspresented by ITI masterteachers. Students alsowill discover the distinc-tive culture of theBalkans while visitingBucharest, NorthernMoldavia, andTransylvania.

Classes will be in En-glish, although studentswill be encouraged tofamiliarize themselveswith Romanian andother languages utilized by their international peers.

Prior to departure, students will take part in a one-week orientation conducted online. Once in Romania, stu-dents will embark on a one-week study tour of the per-forming arts in Romania and neighboring countries. Thefinal two weeks of the program will be on-site at the Inter-national Drama Workshops in Sinaia, Romania.

Horne is an award-winning international masterteacher, director, actor, producer and performing artsjudge. Her two main areas of research are method actingand international performing arts. During the past twodecades, she has presented her artistic and academicwork throughout the United States and in more than 20


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By Jessica Keltz

Maria S. Hornehas worked topromote inter-

national performing artsat UB since she beganteaching here in 1994.

Horne, associate pro-fessor in the Depart-ment of Theatre andDance, College of Artsand Sciences, says thatto qualify for the grant,which she receivedalong with a SUNYChancellor’s Award forInternationalization, theprogram had to take stu-dents to a country theymight not normally visit.

“What we’re lookingfor is to expose students to places where otherwise theywould not go, and to other languages, cultures and civili-zations,” she says.

Horne, who was born in Argentina, also has takengroups of students to Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica,France, Greece, Mexico and Spain to study and perform.She says that the experience provides both short-termand long-term benefits for her students. While abroad,students have the opportunity to compare their work withresearch being conducted in other parts of the world, shesays.

“But at the same time, they develop a cross-culturalunderstanding and they create a network of internationalpeers that they will draw on throughout their lives,” sheadds. For example, about six of her alumni will presentpapers at the Sixth World Congress of University Theater,to be held in Italy this summer.

In addition, Horne notes that traveling is just one com-ponent of her work in international performing arts; shehas established a research lab on campus and brings art-ists here to perform and to teach as part of the Interna-tional Artistic and Cultural Exchange Program, otherwiseknown as IACE, of which she is the founding director.

"The scope is much larger than taking a groupabroad," she points out. IACE has brought 20 productions from 15 countries tocampus and hosted more than 50 performing arts schol-ars from 10 countries, as well as supporting the IACE Cre-ative Research Lab, where a group of hand-picked stu-dents work on interdisciplinary research projects along-side faculty members.

This past February, three ofher IACE creative research labstudents traveled to San Jose,Costa Rica, as part of the“Promising Artists of the 21stCentury” program, a presti-gious, by-invitation-only an-nual series that honors eightmajor U.S. universities eachyear. In addition to participat-ing in master classes andworkshops, the students per-formed an original conceptmusical they created throughmonths of collaborative re-search, Horne says. The musical, “Coming,Staying, Leaving: The Storiesof New York,” developed byThomas DeTrinis, BethanyMoore and Harold Lewter,along with a team of 25 col-

laborators, was attended by officials from the U.S. Em-bassy in Costa Rica and Department of State Horne says.Horne believes the performing arts encompass not justentertainment, but also scholarship. In the United States,she explains, theater tends to be “very much production-oriented,” which is not the case elsewhere.

In addition to her recent Chancellor’s Award for Inter-nationalization, Horne also is the recipient of a 2002Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and aMilton Plesur Excellence in Teaching Award. She serves asvice president of the International University Theater As-sociation, and the U.S. Department of State has desig-nated her as an American Cultural Specialist to Estonia, aCulture Connect Envoy to Paraguay, and a U.S. Speakerand Specialist to Costa Rica.

While it would be easy to concentrate just on her owncareer—which will take her to the Philippines in latespring as a U.S. representative to the International The-atre Institute-UNESCO World Congress, to Italy in July asco-chair of the Scientific Committee for the sixth Interna-tional University Theatre Association World Congress, andto Belarus in October as chair of the Independent Jury ofthe III International Student Theatre Art Festival TeatralnyKoufar—Horne stresses it’s important to work at studentinvolvement.

“I think it’s part of our mission here: to share with ourstudents and engage them as contributors to our re-search,” she says. �

Jessica Keltz is contributing writer to the UB Reporter.

Maria Horne (center rear) with UB students in Costa Rica

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Râfraichissez-vous la vie!!

By Shaun Irlam

Long ago, when he was a student in Paris during the1930s, and Senegal was still a colony of France, Léopold Senghor, the first President of independent

Senegal began developing a theory of cultural differenceabout Africa called négritude.

It was a needed antidote to centuries of negative ste-reotyping of Africa and was a major influence on a gen-eration of literature and art in post-war francophone Af-rica and the Caribbean.

Whatever its limitations, the in-tuitive truth of Senghor’s ventureis as palpable today to any foreignvisitor setting foot in Africa.

The moment you arrive inDakar, you know you’re trulysomewhere else. Africa is a daz-zling, kaleidoscopic continent ofcultures, colors and tongues, andSenegal makes the perfect gate-way into this astonishing, rainbowrealm.

Senegal lies on thewesternmost point of the bulge ofAfrica. It is a diverse nation of 10million people, comprising nu-merous different ethnicities(Wolof, Fula, Serer, Pulaar andLebú are the most prominent).Senegal has been independentfor over 40 years, but the imprintof French culture from colonialtimes remains strong.

It was the administrative center for France’s vast colo-nial empire in West Africa for over a century and still main-tains perhaps the closest ties with France of any sub-Sa-haran francophone nation. Its proximity to the IslamicMaghreb in the north gives it a second, significant cul-tural dimension that is absent further south. A devoutlyreligious nation, Senegal today remains over 90% Mus-lim.

Thirdly, it was once a major hub for the trans-Atlanticslave trade to the New World; slaves were shipped fromthe notorious Gorée Island, just off the coast of Dakar, aswell as from Saint-Louis, an estuarine city that sprawlsacross the Senegal River in the north.

Senegal thus also retains a prominent cultural signifi-cance for the history of the United States and Caribbean,and particularly, the heritage of the African-Americancommunity. Today, Gorée remains a powerful emotional

and spiritual destination for African-American visitors.When I first arrived in Dakar very early some years

ago, my hotel room was not yet available so I wandereddown a few blocks to an upmarket bookstore, Librairie auxQuatre Vents. While I was browsing through titles by Proustand Rousseau, a rooster crowed noisily in a yard nearbyabruptly reminding me how far I was from the Left Bank.Such surreal juxtapositions are the signature of Senegal.

My hotel window looked across a rubble-strewn lotringed by high-rises. It provided sanctuary for a half-dozen loudly bleating sheep shortly to be sacrificed forthe Muslim festival of Tabaski; in this weird scene of post-urban pastoral, the bustle and traffic of Dakar seem sev-eral modes of production and an industrial revolution

away. This strange vision of sheep among the skyscrapersmight be the caption for modern Africa as it tries to rec-oncile traditional agrarian ways of life with the swift incur-sions of western modernity.

All day Dakar roars with traffic on a grid laid in the1950s: taxis, motorcycles, revving engines, incessantlyhonking horns—congestion elevated to the status of fineart. Pedestrians on every street vie with vehicles for own-ership.

The streets are thronged passageways of commerce,consumption, compression, congress, color; to the un-schooled eye, chaos ensues, yet it all possesses a graceand choreography of its own, distinct from the west andutterly African.

After the sun sets, clubs and dancehalls showcase someof the finest musical talent to be heard anywhere. Themusic is abundant and crackles with energy. Polychro-matic tapestries of djembe and tama burst across the

Street scene in St. Louis, Senegal, featuring the Coca-Cola slogan

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night. Performances last for hours.Exploring the city, I have the strange im-

pression that I’ve encountered slivers ofSenegal elsewhere during travels in Africa,the Caribbean, New Orleans or the immi-grant quarters of Paris or New York—Dakarfinally brings all the pieces together in onevibrant and incandescent fusion.

Râfraichissez-vous la vie!!—the sloganadopted by Coca-Cola in francophone Africa-hails travelers from brightly-colored bill-boards and storefronts across Senegal. It saysa great deal about the reach and marketingpower of Coca-Cola in this poor, developingcountry.

Yet, it says a great deal more about the tonic and in-toxicating power of Senegal itself. Senegal can do a lotmore to refresh life than Coca-Cola ever will and this iswhat Senghor appreciated so long ago. Signs of Senegal’svitality leap at the visitor from every direction.

This summer, some intrepid UB students will take theirfirst trip to Senegal, spending two weeks in Dakar, thecapital, as well as a week-end in St. Louis, seat of theFrench administration during colonial times, and a dayvisiting Senghor’s home down south in Joal-Faidhout.

Every year Senegal hosts millions of birds of passage.The 16,000 hectare sanctuary at Djoudj is renowned

countries.Founding director of the UB’s International Artistic and

Cultural Exchange Program (IACE), Horne has fostered abetter cultural understanding at the university by present-ing international artists of multicultural background.Horne also provides UB students and faculty with learningand cross-cultural research opportunities abroad by mak-ing their participation possible at selected internationalfestivals and residencies.

The engineering program in Thailand will afford stu-dents the opportunity not only to take classes with theirThai counterparts, but participate together in organizedcultural and recreational activities outside of class, andeven live in the same dormitory. Consequently, this pro-gram will provide an exceptionally rich opportunity forstudents to develop a deep understanding of contempo-rary Thailand and its people, while simultaneously earn-ing credits in required engineering courses.

The program at Chiang Mai builds on the highly suc-

among birdwatchers and ornithologists. Pelicans, egrets,herons, cormorants, spoonbills, and flamingos thrive inthe marshes and wetlands along the Senegal River.

Senegal nurtures so much birdlife, so much color, somuch music and so much energy under its dusty wingthat as my own passage home lifts me skyward, over thesprawling energies of waking Dakar, floating through mymind is the image of a brightly plumed song bird, soar-ing high over the Sahel. It is a fitting farewell. �

Shaun Irlam is associate professor and chair of ComparativeLiterature.

cessful short-term programs Mook has conducted in Eu-rope. In 2003 he launched an innovative engineering pro-gram in Troyes, France, at the Universite de Technologiede Troyes, a program similar in many ways to the one inThailand. This program takes UB engineering studentsimmediately after the freshman year for an intensive, five-week study program combining a required engineeringcourse (statics) along with a required general electivecourse on European history and culture.

Assistant dean for international education in the Schoolof Engineering and Applied Sciences, Mook has publishedand presented frequently on international engineeringeducation. His leadership in the field was recognized byhis election as the chair of the Executive Committee of theGlobal Engineering Education Exchange (Global-E3), thelargest such organization for engineering student ex-changes in the world, which includes leading institutionsin 19 nations, among them some 35 US member institu-tions.

Faculty and staff who would like additional informationabout the Chancellor’s Awards for Internationalization orabout developing new study abroad programs may con-tact Sandra Flash at 645-3912. �

CHANCELLOR'S AWARDScontinued from page 11

A view of the Senegal River in St. Louis

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Sheridan noted that as was the case after HurricaneKatrina, distribution of water, food and housing for thesurvivors and the nature of the escape routes also must becarefully considered with an evacuation of this magnitude.

“What must be taken into account are the temporaryfacilities where people could stay during the volcanic crisisto make sure that they are not located in zones that aretoo close to the volcano and where they could still be af-fected by the eruption,” he said.

Sheridan has spent four decades mapping hazardsfrom active volcanoes in Italy, Mexico, Ecuador and

around the world so that civil authorities know how andwhen to evacuate populations. He also serves on a U.S.Department of Energy expert panel to assess probabilisticvolcanic hazards at Yucca Mountain, the planned ultimaterepository for all of the United States’ nuclear waste.

“There is a tendency to underestimate what geologistscall the maximum probable event,” said Sheridan. “It’spolitically negative to talk about the maximum probablehazard because you are purveying bad news and nobodyin public office wants to present this really bad news.” �

Ellen Goldbaum is a senior editor for University News Ser-vices.

VESUVIUScontinued from page 7

Joseph J. Hindrawan, assistantvice provost for internationaleducation and director of in-

ternational enrollment man-agement, will receive the 2006Chancellor’s Award for Excel-lence in Professional Service.This is a SUNY-wide award hon-oring professional staff mem-bers throughout the 65 cam-puses of the State Universitysystem.

Hindrawan was recognizedMay 17 at an awards luncheonhosted by the University at Buf-falo Professional Staff Senate.Four other UB professional staffmembers also received theaward in 2006. The awardeeswill also be honored at theuniversity’s Celebration of Excellence in spring 2007.

Stephen C. Dunnett, professor and vice provost forinternational education, notes, “I have come to rely onJoe as one of my closest associates and most trusted col-leagues. He epitomizes the commitment to excellencethat our office upholds and consistently goes above andbeyond his stated duties in providing dedicated service tostudents, colleagues, our office, UB, and SUNY. He is richlydeserving of the Chancellor’s Award.”

A native of Indonesia, Hindrawan came to UB in 1989to do his MBA at the UB School of Management. Begin-ning as a graduate assistant in the Office of InternationalEducation, Hindrawan went on to become a full-time staffmember in the office, where his administrative skills andhis knowledge of Asian languages, cultures and educa-tion systems were a valuable asset in the administration of

the university’s sponsored pro-grams in Asia.

Later, Hindrawan was respon-sible for developing UB’s interna-tional recruitment effort. He be-gan recruiting students in Asia in1995 and became director of theOffice of International EnrollmentManagement when it was estab-lished in 1998.

During the past ten years, hehas played a major role in increas-ing the university’s internationalenrollment from a little over 1,200to more than 3,600. UB is nowranked 11th among U.S. institutionsenrolling the most internationalstudents.

As Director of International En-rollment Management, Hindra-

wan is responsible for the recruitment, admission and re-tention of international undergraduate and graduate stu-dents. As Assistant Vice Provost for International Educa-tion, Hindrawan is responsible for developing theuniversity's sponsored programs in Asia including supportof contract negotiation, overseeing the start-up and on-going administration of programs. In this capacity, he hashad a major role in the developoment and administra-tion of UB's undergraduate programs at Singapore Insti-tute of Management

Hindrawan holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineeringfrom National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan and anMBA from the University at Buffalo. He is a member ofNAFSA: Association of International Educators, AIEA andAACRAO. He was a recipient of the 2005 Japan-U.S. In-ternational Education Administration Fulbright award. �

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February 24, 2041

Mrs. Taehee Hwang177-7 Yuido-Dong, Yungdeungpo-GuSeoul, Korea 150-010

Dear Grandmother:

How are you? It is warm in Buffalo, even though you toldme Buffalo was freezing in February. There seems to havebeen many changes including the weather from 2006when you and grandfather studied at UB. My professor,who was born and raised in Buffalo, said that Buffalo hasnot had snow anymore since 2030 on account of thegreenhouse effect. Unfortunately, I have never seen theamazing grandeur of Buffalo snow.

I have something to make you surprised. The univer-sity gave the international students an opportunity to visitand experience an American home, and I was invited lastweekend. While having American traditional dinner, I letthe host family hear about you, a distinguished scholar ofEnglish in Korea, and grandfather. The moment I told thefact that my grandparents were ELI students at UB, thehostess said that her mother was an English teacher atELI. Amazingly, her mother is Barbara Campbell, who isyour model as an English educator. What an unbelievablecoincidence! Definitely, there was an act of providence.

Did you listen to the announcement that the WorldGovernment would make global language standard untilthe end of this year and unify languages all over theworld? Contrary to this opinion, I believe that a languageof each country should be preserved, because the lan-guage reflects national characteristics. You also empha-sized in your classes that a language is the culture and

ELI MARKS 35TH ANNIVERSARY

Founded in 1971, the English Language Institute (ELI)is observing its 35th anniversary this year with a num-ber of special events.

On May 4, the ELI celebrated a "35th birthday party"luncheon with the Intensive English Program studentscompleting the spring semester program. In lieu of "birth-day presents," students donated story books to Vive LaCasa, a local agency serving refugees in transit to Canada.

During the spring semester, the ELI also organized anessay contest that invited current students to put their ownELI experience into a historical perspective.

One of the winners of the essay contest, TaeheeHwang from Korea, whose essay is reproduced below,wrote an imaginary letter addressed to herself 35 yearshence by her own granddaughter, that is, during the ELI's70th anniversary year.

history of a country. On Friday next, there will be a large-scale demonstration against the World Government’spolicy in New York, and I am going to take part in thedemonstration carrying a picture of King Sejong, who cre-ated the Korean language, Hangul. It takes 40 minutes toget to New York by my flying car.

You recommended me to live in the dormitory to meetmany friends from all over the world, and I complied withthis advice willingly. It was a great choice, since I have avery special roommate who name is GA612. She is fromMars and the first exchange student from another planet.Could you imagine that students from other planets andstudents on the earth could study together at a universityand live together in a dorm?

Nowadays, I am writing an essay to join the 35th Writ-ing Olympics, which is held to celebrate ELI’s 70th anniver-sary. I can select one of two topics, Being an InternationalStudent at UB in the year 2006, or Being an InternationalStudent at UB in the year 2076, and I have chose theformer. Frankly, speaking, I am making the most of yourexperience at UB in 2006. As a matter of fact, I imaginedthat I would study in America whenever you talked ofstudying at UB, and it was joyful time for me to own some-thing along with you.

Grandma! I have never told you that I have the honorto take your name and how much I am proud of you fordeveloping a new model for English education in Koreaand reforming Korean English education.

I bought the latest model cellular phone which canmake call if I just think of someone I want to contact in myhead, so I can often call you. Take care of yourself.

Yours Sincerely,Taehee Hwang

During the ELI summer programs, there will be a spe-cial ELI birthday picnic. Other celebratory events areplanned for the fall, including a special concert duringInternational Education Week in November.

Having begun as a small intensive English program fora few dozen students, the ELI grew over the years intoone of the most successful English language training cen-ters in the country.

Currently, the ELI conducts several different programs:the Intensive English Program, the ELI's full-time, non-credit program serving both students preparing for uni-versity study in the U.S. and those wishing to improvetheir English for other purposes; the English as a SecondLanguage Program for matriculated UB students, theEvening Program, a non-credit part-time program forboth students and community members; and OverseasPrograms, conducted in several countries. �

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NEW PROGRAM IN ARTS MANAGEMENTHAS STRONG INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

An innovative Master of Arts in the Humanities Pro-gram in Arts Management is set to enroll its first students this fall.

The program represents a unique partnership of threedecanal units at UB—the College of Arts and Sciences,the School of Management, and the Law School. The pro-gram will be taught by faculty from all three schools aswell as arts management practitioners with extensive pro-fessional experience in the field.

The program’s director, Associate Professor RuthBereson, is an Australian who has lived and worked inAsia, Europe, and the United States. Bereson holds a PhDin Arts Management from the Department of Arts Policyand Management, City University, London and has con-siderable experience in the field.

Bereson has been a general manager of a touring mu-sical theatre company, coordinator of international art ex-hibitions in the profit and not-for-profit sectors, logisticsmanager for an indigenous festival, and manager of amusical venue.

Bereson’s recent publications include The OperaticState. Cultural Policy and the Opera House (Routledge 2002)and Artistic Integrity and Social Responsibility: You Can’tPlease Everyone! (Ethos Press 2001).

The new master’s program has a distinctly interna-tional focus, as the subject itself, both from an academicand professional perspective, constantly crosses borders,negotiating the relationship between the arts, culture andthe societies in which they occur.

The study of arts management matters because thearts manager is the final mediator between the arts andthe public. The challenge today is to find ways of forgingindependent links between each artwork and its true au-dience, while negotiating the increasingly complex legal,political and economic bonds that now constrain the man-agement of the arts.

The program was inaugurated in September 2005with a conference entitled “Why Manage the Arts?” atwhich three generations of practitioners discussed thisquestion.

Emeritus Professor John Pick, the first professor of artsmanagement in Europe spoke about the subject fromShakespearean times onwards and the history of the for-mation of arts management programs in Europe and theUnited States; Ruth Bereson explained the subject’s newplace here at UB; and a number of her former studentsfrom Portugal, Guatemala, South Africa, Australia,Canada and across the United States attended to sharetheir views on the importance of the subject.

The Arts Management Program is a full-time, two-yearprogram comprising 39 credit hours. Students will take

classes in theory and research in the subject, cultural policyand diplomacy, the arts and business, and legal issues inarts management as well as electives ranging from me-dia curating, museum studies, music management andtheatre management and participate in practicum. Thereis also an active study abroad program with professorsand students participating from a number of Europeanuniversities. In addition to the formal course work, practi-cal experiences, projects and thesis which students do inorder to complete their MAH degree, the program offersan annual seminar on the subject.

This year Professor Pierre Guillet de Monthoux, fromthe School of Business at Stockholm University and authorof The Art Firm. Aesthetic Management and MetaphysicalMarketing, will give the keynote lecture on Thursday, Oc-tober 5, 2006. He will also premier his new documentaryfilm Master of Business Arts, which is part of his largerproject on “Fields of Flow” and to launch his CD entitled“Liedership,” in which he sings his management theo-ries to the tunes of Schubert lieder.

Related study abroad programs are also in develop-ment, as arts managers need to understand the com-plexity of today’s cultural environment which typicallytranscends national borders. Therefore, students in theprogram will also have the opportunity to take part inoverseas programs which are being designed around themany international arts and cultural events which takeplace each summer.

The Summer School for 2007 will visit “Documenta” inKassel, Germany and tuition will take place in Gattières(near Nice) in the South of France and have the opportu-nity of attending the Venice Biennale and the Festivald’Avignon. In 2008 it is likely that the summer school willoccur in St Petersburg. Faculty for the summer school willbe drawn from UB faculty, distinguished professors frominternational universities, and arts managers from the re-gion surrounding the school.

The program is a full member of European Network ofCultural Administration Training Centers (ENCATC) andan associate Member of the Association of Arts Adminis-tration Educators (AAAE). It publishes an Occasional Paperseries the first volume of which was entitled Why Managethe Arts? and the second will treat questions of culturaldiplomacy.

One of the emphases of the program is that the sub-ject is international, drawing from inter-disciplinary areasin law, management, and the arts. The student popula-tion will be diverse and the case studies currently beingdeveloped are pertinent not only locally, but nationallyand internationally.

For more information about the program or to applyvisit its website www.artsmanagement.buffalo.edu. �

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By John Della Contrada

A unique educational collaboration is providing Uni-versity at Buffalo law and MBA students with a new gateway to New York City’s international financial

markets and highly competitive financial-sector job mar-ket.

Twenty UB law, MBA and joint JD/MBA students arestudying international finance and global investmentbanking this semester in New York City at the Levin Gradu-ate Institute of International Relations and Commerce, aninnovative new graduate institution operated within theState University of New York system.

The UB/Levin program is the first SUNY graduate pro-gram offered by the Levin Institute, which was establishedin 2002 by Gov. George Pataki in memory of Neil D. Levin,director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,who died during the terrorist attack on the World TradeCenter on Sept. 11, 2001.

The 12-credit, semester-long program is introducingstudents to the challenges of managing financial transac-tions and capital flows across borders, business culturesand multiple regulatory systems.

Courses are taught by well-known UB law and man-agement faculty, as well as other faculty from leading lawand business schools.

High-level alumni from the two UB schools frequentlyserve as guest speakers and the students are assignedhands-on projects working with executives from M&TBank, Credit Suisse, UBS, the international law firm ofFried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP and CLSA, aHong Kong-based investment bank.

“This new collaboration with the Levin Institute givesus the opportunity to expose our students to New YorkCity’s unique financial institutions and allows them to learnfrom top professionals in international finance,” says NilsOlsen, dean of the UB Law School.

“It is our first extended effort to teach courses in theNew York City area and offers not only significant aca-demic advantages for our students but also enhancedcareer placement for them as well.”

The goal of the program, according to John Thomas,dean of the UB School of Management, is to help thestudents develop knowledge, skills and contacts neededto break into the very competitive world of investmentbanking and international finance.

“The program is providing our students with invalu-able access to the top companies in the financial sector,”Thomas says. “If students are interested in careers in in-ternational finance, it’s critical they be in New York Citywhere the major players are.”

Acceptance into the program is competitive. Experien-

LAW, MBA STUDENTS IN PROGRAM IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE

tial learning and cross-discipline team collaboration arekey components of the program, according to UB LawSchool professor Philip Halpern, UB’s on-site administra-tor in New York City.

“Integration is a very important part of the programbecause it dovetails with the real world, where lawyersand business executives often work together to solve aproblem or negotiate a transaction,” Halpern says. “Thereare separate legal and business issues, but they arelinked. The students’ degrees may be different, but theywork together very well.”

Third-year law student Jesse George of Utica, N.Y., forexample, wants to pursue a career in international law inNew York City or overseas after graduation in May.

The UB/Levin program, George says, is helping him“meet people and make connections” he would not havemade in Buffalo. “If you’re going to a professional schoolto study finance, ideally you’d like to get some experiencein the financial center of the world,” he explains. “Thisprogram was a natural choice for me.”

George’s team of law, MBA and JD/MBA students isdoing a project this semester with global financial ser-vices provider Credit Suisse, examining international busi-ness opportunities and challenges facing a major client ofthe firm.

Meanwhile, second-year MBA student Erik Zeppuharof Pittsburgh and his teammates are working under theguidance of an executive from UBS, a global financial ser-vices firm. They’re examining legal and business issuesraised by potential SEC regulations requiring unbundlingclient commissions received for research and execution oftrades. The objective of the project is to identify currentregulatory requirements, recommend possible changesto those regulations and suggest strategies for doing busi-ness in the new regulatory environment.

“The experience definitely is better preparing me fora career in finance,” Zeppuhar says. “Learning aboutmarket regulations and various international topics frompeople actually in the industry is something I was not ex-posed to before I came here."

The UB/Levin program fits well with the mission of theLevin Institute, according to institute president GarrickUtley, who says the institute also is exploring similar inter-nationally focused graduate programs in collaborationwith other SUNY institutions.

UB deans Olsen and Thomas hope to develop futureeducational collaborations between the UB Law School,School of Management and the Levin Institute. Thomas isworking with Levin to develop a new program in globalsupply-chain management, for example. �

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INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF FACULTY AND STAFF

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNINGDepartment of ArchitectureThe IDEA Center (Center for Inclusive Design and EnvironmentalAccess) recently was awarded a five-year, five million dollar grantand designation as Rehabilitation Engineering and Research Centeron Universal Design and the Built Environment (RERC-UD). Thisgrant— awarded to the interdisciplinary team of Edward Steinfeld,professor, Scott Danford associate professor, and Beth Tauke, asso-ciate professor, in Architecture; Victor Paquet in Industrial Engineer-ing, and James Lenker, assistant professor, and Joseph Lane, seniorstaff associate, in Rehabilitation Sciences—is sponsored by the U.S.Department of Education and the National Institute for Disabilityand Rehabilitation Research. The RERC-UD is a partnership betweenthe IDEA Center, the Ontario Rehabilitation Technology Consortiumand representatives from design and disability communities nation-wide. The center will research and develop critical tools for advanc-ing the field of universal design and apply those tools to developexemplary products and places through industry partnerships. Workwill also include a focus on the International Classification Functionset out by the World Health Organization.

Omar Kahn, assistant professor, was an invited participant in theinternational Performance Design Symposium convened at the Dan-ish Institute in Rome in January 2006. The symposium, organized byfaculty from Massey University in New Zealand and Roskilde Univer-sity in Denmark, examined the breadth of practices emerging in thiscross-disciplinary field, from theater scenography to responsive en-vironments and citizen appropriation of public space, forecastingcritical and experimental strategies that performance might play inthe “experience” economy. Khan presented his work in new mediaand performance structures. Assisted by graduate students Mat-thew Zinski and Cesar Cedano, he led a three day workshop thatused the 1953 film Roman Holiday as means to explore the relation-ship between popular media, performance and urban experience.

Mark Shepard, assistant professor, who holds a dual appointment inArchitecture and Media Study, was invited to present his work at thethird international Mobile Music Workshop, held in March 2006 atthe University of Sussex in the UK. The workshop explored howdevices such as mobile phones, walkmans and iPods have broughtmusic to the ever-changing social and geographic locations of theirusers and reshaped their experience of the urban landscape. It isorganized by the Department of Media and Film Studies, Universityof Sussex; the Future Applications Lab, Viktoria Institute; and AdelphiResearch Institute, University of Salford, UK, in collaboration withPervasive and Locative Arts Network and Futuresonic. Shepard pre-sented the Tactical Sound Garden Toolkit, an open source softwareplatform for cultivating public “sound gardens” within contempo-rary urban environments. This project draws on the culture of urbancommunity gardening to posit a participatory environment wherenew spatial practices for social interaction within technologicallymediated environments can be explored and evaluated. Address-ing the impact of mobile audio devices, the project examines gra-dations of privacy and publicity within contemporary public space.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCESDepartment of AnthropologyAna Mariella Bacigalupo, assistant professor, conducted ethno-graphic fieldwork in Southern Chile for her new book FranciscaCurrihual: A Lightning Shaman at the Crossroads of Mapuche and Chil-ean Culture, and for a new project on Mapuche intercultural healthhospitals and pharmacies. Bacigalupo also presented a paper titled“Mapuche Identity through Shamanic Rituals and Discourses ofPower” at the Circulating Religiosities Conference, sponsored bythe Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New YorkUniversity and held in Chiapas, Mexico on February 23-26, 2006.

Everett Yuehong Zhang, assistant professor, gave a talk in January2006 titled, “Anthropology and Cultural Psychiatry,” at the Instituteof Mental Health of Beijing Medical University, part of Beijing Uni-versity and the largest research institution of mental health in Beijing.

Department of ArtReinhard Reitzenstein, director of the Sculpture Program, had workfeatured in a group exhibition entitled “Nature Wanted, Dead orAlive” at the Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Montreal, Quebec, Canada,February. 5 - March 12, 2006. Also, he will present a solo exhibitionof new sculptures and photographic works at the Olga Korper Gal-lery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 22 - July 31, 2006.

Department of Biological SciencesJames O. Berry, professor, hosted Heiko Ziebell, a Ph.D. studentfrom the University of Cambridge in England, in November 2005and again in January 2006. With support of travel grants from theSociety for Experimental Biology and the Company of BiologistsTravel Fund, Ziebell visited Berry’s laboratory to use in situ hybridiza-tion of plant tissues in order to detect viral RNAs, as part of hisdissertation research on “cross-protection,” a strategy to “immu-nize” plants against viruses. With Berry’s help, Ziebell successfullyprocessed and analyzed plant leaves, using various methods to visu-alize his hybridized samples.

Mary A. Bisson, professor, was on sabbatical leave from May toAugust 2005 with M. J. Beilby at the University of New South Wales,Sydney, Australia, working on turgor regulation in the marine algaVentricaria. She wrote two review papers and is working on a re-search paper describing the team’s biophysical approaches to lookat responses to changes in salinity. From August to December 2005,Bisson continued her sabbatical with R. Lew at York University inToronto, Ontario. They were looking at light effects on electricalresponses in the model plant Arabidopsis, to better understand howlight controls plant growth and development.

Department of ChemistryPhilip Coppens, SUNY Distinguished Professor, received theNishikawa Prize of the Crystallography Society of Japan in Decem-ber 2005. On this occasion he delivered an award address entitled,“Drug-substrate interactions from a theory-based databank of trans-ferable pseudoatoms and potential curves derived from advancedtheoretical calculations.” In addition, he delivered a number of lec-tures at overseas institutions in the past year: “Time-resolved diffrac-tion, spectroscopic and theoretical studies of molecular excitedstates” in November 2005 at University de Rennes 1, France. Insti-tute de Physique. In December he also spoke at the Spring 8 Syn-chrotron Laboratory in Harima Prefecture, Japan: “Molecules, Lightand X-rays, Can we measure how atoms rearrange under light ex-posure?” and at KEK Synchrotron Laboratory in Tsukuba ScienceCity, Japan: “Molecules, Light and X-rays, Can we measure howatoms rearrange under light exposure?”

Department of EnglishIn August 2005, Stacy Hubbard, associate professor, participated inthe week-long Oxford Round Table on Women’s Leadership held atLady Margaret Hall, Oxford. The Round Table brings together schol-ars, legal experts and governmental leaders to discuss questions ofculture and public policy in an international context. Hubbard wasone of 25 invited participants who gathered to discuss progresstowards and impediments to women’s leadership roles in the arts,education, government, and business. The gathering included soci-ologists, political scientists, historians, religious scholars, and literaryand cultural critics. Hubbard presented a paper entitled “‘Moredeadly than the male’: Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Politics ofSympathy,” which examined the intersecting rhetorics of feminism,

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anti-feminism and sentimentalism in media accounts of the careerof Hillary Clinton. Hubbard has been invited back to the RoundTable for 2006.

Department of GeologyMichael Sheridan, UB Distinguished Professor, and three of hisgraduate students have been conducting field and laboratory re-search on several volcanoes in Central America as well as the Andesover the past year. Rebecca Williams will complete her MS thesis onan analysis of the effects of mudflows from Cotopaxi volcano on thecity of Latacunga (50,000 inhabitants) and a study of a small mud-flow at Tungurahua volcano in February of 2005. Her research waspresented as two separate papers, one at the American GeophysicalUnion (AGU) meeting in San Francisco in December 2005 and theother at the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistryof the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) meeting in Quito, Ecuador in January2006. Adam Stinton has been studying mudflows and pyroclasticflows of Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador and the risk that they presentto the city of Baños (20,000 inhabitants) for his Ph.D. dissertation. Hepresented papers on this topic at AGU and IAVCEI. Adam alsoworked on mudflows hazard of Irazu Volcano in Costa Rica andpresented this at the IAVCEI meeting in Quito. Stinton helped con-duct a UNESCO-sponsored workshop on volcanic hazards in CostaRica with Sheridan in December 2005. Brett Burkett studied a seriesof volcanic deposits in the Andes of Peru as part of his Ph.D. research.He presented his work on Hualca Hualca volcano at the December2005 AGU meeting in San Francisco. Sheridan gave workshops oncomputer modeling of volcanic flows in Mexico in November 2005and Costa Rica in December 2005. He later organized a symposiumon computer modeling of volcanic hazards at the IAVCEI meeting inQuito this past January. Prior to the two workshops researchers fromMexico and Costa Rica came to UB to be trained in the use of theTITAN flow model developed here. Sheridan has been invited byInstituto Geológico Minero y Metalúrgico (INGEMET) of Peru to serveon their scientific committee for the “Elaboracion del Mapa dePeligros Volcánicos del Volcán Misti (Arequipa).” Sheridan is study-ing this volcano with a French team at Université Blaise Pascal ofClermont-Ferrand and currently has a paper in press on this topic.

Department of HistoryDorothee Brantz, assistant professor, was co-organizer of an inter-national conference about “The Place of Nature in Twentieth-Cen-tury Europe and North America,” which was held from December 1-3, 2005 at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC. Brantzwas featured in a radio program about the contemporary and his-torical relations between humans and animals on theÖsterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF, Austrian Radio) on December 21,2005. Brantz presented a paper at a conference about new direc-tions in environmental history at Cambridge University, UK, January3-4, 2006. She was an invited speaker at a conference “Abwehr:Modelle, Strategien, Medien” at the Akademie der WissenschaftenBerlin, Germany, April 1-3, 2006; and at a conference on “PolitischeZoologie” at the Universität Weimar in Germany, April 22-24, 2006.

Andreas Daum, professor, published a book with Cambridge Uni-versity Press that takes a comparative look at urban culture in thehistory of nation-states: Berlin — Washington, 1800-2000: Capital Cit-ies, Cultural Representations, and National Identities, co-edited to-gether with Christof Mauch, offers twelve essays that re-examinethe role of these two capital cities in the modern era. Daum’s intro-ductory article suggests a typology for understanding the changingdimensions of “capital culture” on a global scale. Daum also pre-sented a paper entitled “Competition and Legitimacy: PerformingPolitics in Cold War Berlin” at an international conference organizedby the Berlin Center for the Comparative History of Europe in Octo-ber 2005, and he joined the advisory board of the internationalscholarly journal Alexander von Humboldt in the Net, coordinated bythe Department of Romance Languages and Literature at the Uni-versity of Potsdam, Germany. Daum and several historians from the

University of Toronto, the University of Rochester, and Canisius Col-lege hosted the second American Canadian Conference in Germanand Modern European History (ACC) on April 21-22, 2006 in Buffalo.

Michael Frisch, professor, delivered a keynote address at ConcordiaUniversity in Montreal, Canada titled, “History in the Making XI “ onMarch 4, 2006. This was the eleventh annual international graduatestudent conference sponsored by Concordia under that title. Thisyear’s topic was “The Past on Display: Public History, Memory, andMemorialization.”His keynote presentation was titled “Leveragingthe past, Imagining the Future: World’s Fair Centennials as Lessonson the Uncertain Uses of Community History.” A paper Frisch deliv-ered at the biennial International Oral History Association confer-ence in 2004, held in Rome, Italy, was invited to be significantlyexpanded for publication in the forthcoming second edition of TheOral History Reader, published by Routledge in London, edited byRobert Perks and Alistair Thompson. This collection has becomesomething of a field-definitive reader on oral history in an interna-tional perspective. The essay under the title “Oral History and theDigital Revolution: Toward a Post-Documentary Sensibility” will bethe final bookend chapter in the new edition due out soon.

Hal Langfur, assistant professor, is spending the spring of 2006 onleave in São João del-Rei, Brazil, where he is conducting archivalresearch on a book project titled Adrift on an Inland Sea: The Projec-tion of Portuguese Power in the Brazilian Wilderness. In December, hedelivered the keynote address, “Colonos e canibais: conflito na MataAtlântica do Brasil setecentista,” at the annual conference Semanade História at the Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Brazil Healso presented the paper, “Resistência indígena nos sertões do leste,1750-1830.”

Ramya Srinivasan, assistant professor, will be presenting a paper atthe 19th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies(ECMSAS) in Leiden, June 27-30, 2006 — her paper is titled ”Newand old histories in Shyamaldas’s Vir Vinod: Mewar ka Itihas [Mar-vellous Heroes: The History of Mewar] (1886),” and the panel istitled People in Motion, Ideas in Motion: Culture and Circulation inPre-modern South Asia, organized by Allison Busch (Columbia Uni-versity) and Thomas deBruijn (Leiden University).

Department of MusicCort Lippe, associate professor, was invited to teach composition,computer music, and analysis at the Sonology Department,Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo for a week in December 2005. InFebruary 2006, he was invited to the Sonic Arts Research Center,Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland to give a lecture andserve as outside reader for a dissertation on score following. Also, inFebruary he was invited to Cologne by the Zentrum fur Kunst undMediantechnologie as part of a commissioning project. He recentlyhad performances at the International Computer Music Conferencein Barcelona, Spain and music festivals in Naples, Italy and Wales,United Kingdom.

Nathan R. Matthews, assistant professor, was an invited participantat the international conference “Stephen Sondheim – Collaboratorand Auteur” that took place at the University of London – Gold-smiths College, London, England. At the closing session of the con-ference on 27 November 2005, he presented a paper based on hisprofessional Broadway experience entitled, “Performing Sondheimin Concert: Children and Art at the New Amsterdam Theatre, NewYork City, 21 March 2005.”

Leah Muir, Presidential Fellow, was selected to participate in thesummer Academy Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany July 2 - 19,2005. There she was involved in masterclasses and seminars withcomposers from around the world. Her string quartet, “A HeronWho Built a Nest in a Willow on Top of a Hill,” was performed in apublic concert by Ensemble Surplus.

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In July of 2005 Harold Rosenbaum, associate professor and directorof choirs at UB, led The Canticum Novum Tour Choir and the NewPrague Collegium in three performances of the Mozart Requiem inPrague, Czech Republic.

Department of PhilosophyKenneth Ehrenberg, assistant professor, attended a conference onnatural law at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain onMarch 27-29, 2006. He delivered a paper entitled, “Natural Lawand the Problem of the Anarchist Official”.

Barry Smith, SUNY Distinguished Professor, has been appointedHonarary Professor of Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany,where he continues to act as part-time Director of the Institute forFormal Ontology and Medical Information Science. In addition, hehas receive a half-million dollars in funding from the European Unione-health directorat for projects pertaining to ontologies, electronichealth records, and clinical trials in the cancer domain. His mostrecent presentations include: “Biomedical Ontologies: The Good,the Bad and the Ugly” (FungalWeb, Montreal, September 2005);“The Ontology of Measurement” (Saarland University, December,2005), “Ontologie des menschlichen Körpers als Organismus”(Humboldt-University Berlin, December, 2005).

Department of Romance Languages and LiteraturesEva Juarros-Daussa, assistant professor, was invited to give a lecturetitled “Indirect Discourse as Evolutionary Adaptation: Game Theoryand Pragmatics” at the 7th Conference on General Linguistics, to beheld in April 18-21, 2006 in Barcelona, Spain. A version of the talkwritten in Catalan is to be published in the conference proceedings.Jaurros-Daussa has been investigating the application of gametheory to linguistic pragmatics, with an interest on how it relates tocurrent ideas about language evolution.

Margarita Vargas, associate professor, delivered papers at the fol-lowing conferences: at the IX Encuentro de Mujeres de Iberoaméricaen las Artes Escénicas: Espacios de Representación held in Cádiz,Spain from October 19-23, 2005. Her paper was titled “El espacioescénico en el mundo homosocial de Y a otra cosa mariposa . . . deSusana Torres Molina.”At the Decimoterceras JornadasInternacionales de Teatro Latinoamericano in Puebla, México in earlyJuly 2005, she delivered “Nación y familia en el México de Elgesticulador.”

Department of Theatre and DanceAt the initiative of Kazimierz Braun, professor, Polish actor-puppe-teers, Pawel Chomczyk and Dagmara Sowa, visited the depart-ment in November 2005. They gave eleven workshops in variousclasses and they twice performed Nativity Play, a Polish, medievalplay; a bilingual production performed in both English and Polish.Additionally they interacted with the Polish community in Buffalo,giving a production of Nativity Play in Lancaster Opera House andvisiting the Polish Saturday School in Buffalo. Both Chomczyk andSowa are graduates of the National School of Drama in Warsaw,Puppetry Department in Bialystok, Poland and now are profession-als, members of “Theatre Company Action” performing in Polandand internationally. Chomczyk was already known at the Universityat Buffalo from his role of Lieutenant Chwalski in Paderewski’s Chil-dren, which he performed in a productions scripted and directed byKazimierz Braun in 2004. The residency was sponsored by the de-partment, the Polish Cultural Foundation, UB’s Office of Interna-tional Education, and the Department of Media Study.

Maria S. Horne, associate professor, traveled in July 2005 to Sinaia,Romania, where she participated in the 6th International Workshopsof Drama Schools and in the International Conference of UniversityTheatre Professors. Both events were organized by the ITI UNESCOChair of Theatre. In August 2005, the Bureau of Educational andCultural Affairs of the United States Department of State desig-

nated Horne as “CultureConnect Envoy” to Paraguay.CultureConnect is an international U.S. Department of State initia-tive whose goal is to improve global, cross-cultural understandingand to strengthen relationships among diverse world cultures, es-pecially for youth. In response to requests from U.S. Embassies andConsulates, envoys are recruited to travel to foreign countries toconduct workshops and master classes, present seminars, or deliverlectures, as required in diversified fields of the arts. In addition,Horne presented a conference paper entitled “The Method: Effec-tiveness and Role in the Third Millennium” at the Teatro AgustinBarrios.

Thomas Ralabate, associate professor, has been appointed for athird term as National Education Chairperson for Dance Masters ofAmerica, Inc. (DMA), an international dance organization for teach-ers and their students. In November 2005, he presented at the 22ndAnnual Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) Conference, “Quality Edu-cation—The Key Role of Teachers: Back to Basic.” Master classeswere presented to enhance kinesthetic intelligence through the useof Gyrokinesis and somatic movement efficiency techniques. As aformer United States Latin Ballroom Dance Champion and U.S.representative to the World Latin Dance Championships Ralabatewas also invited to present workshops in Ballroom Social Danceforms. Ralabate will make a return visit for BUT in November 2006.In April 2006 he will adjudicate dance works in Toronto, Ontario forCanada Dance Masters and present master classes in comparativejazz dance styles and techniques. From July 23 - August 3, 2006,Ralabate will organize and present as core faculty for NationalDance Masters of America Teachers Training School to be held at theCenter for the Arts at UB. This will be UB’s eighth consecutive year ofhosting this 10-day international education conference attractingdance artists/educators. and students from around the world.

Department of Women’s StudiesPiya Pangsapa, assistant professor, organized and chaired a panelthat brought in three labor scholars/activists from Thailand and alabor lawyer from Washington, DC. The conference, “Global Com-panies - Global Unions, Global Research - Global Campaigns,” or-ganized and co-sponsored by the Cornell University School of Indus-trial and Labor Relations, brought in over 400 labor leaders, NGOactivists, and labor scholars from around the world. Pangsapa gavea lecture titled, “The Interdisciplinarity of Women’s Studies and theTransformative Aspect of Feminist Research and Pedagogy,” at theWomen’s Worlds 2005 9th International Interdisciplinary Congresson Women that was held in Seoul, Korea, June 19-24, 2005, at theEhwa Women’s University. During the summer 2005, she conductedpreliminary research on the situation of cross-border migration innorthern Thailand, having been awarded two research grants fromthe Gender Institute and a Small Research Grant from Baldy Centerfor Law and Social Policy in June 2005, under the proposed projecttitle, “Economic Development and the Politics of Cross-Border Im-migration Policy in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.” In November 2005, Pangapa presented a paper titled, “WorkerConsciousness and the Shaping of Gender and Social Relations inthe Apparel Industry,” at the 8th Congress of Philosophy Meeting,Philosophical Association of Mexico, in Morelia, Mexico, November14-18, 2005. The title of the Thai panel Pangsapa organized andchaired, “Thailand: Challenges and Opportunities in OrganizingWorkers in a Regional Economic Powerhouse,” Global Companies-Unions-Global Research-Global Campaigns International Confer-ence in New York City, February 9-11, 2006.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONDepartment of Learning and InstructionX. Christine Wang, assistant professor of early childhood education,was invited to give a series of lectures and presentations at theBeijing Normal University and East China Normal University (ECNU)in December 2005. These two universities are the most prestigiousteacher education institutions in China. At Beijing Normal Univer-

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22 sity, Wang delivered several invited lectures to the Department ofEarly Childhood Education: “Technology in early childhood educa-tion: Research and policy issues;” “Interpretative research in earlychildhood education;” and “Studying and working in American uni-versities: Personal experience and reflection.” Wang also gave aninvited presentation, “Digital photo journal project: Case study oftechnology integration in early childhood education” at the Schoolof Early Childhood Education, ECNU in Shanghai.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCESDepartment of Civil, Structural and Environmental EngineeringMichael Constantinou, professor, and Andrei Reinhorn, Clifford C.Furnas Professor of Structural Engineering, were honored with the2005 Civil Engineering Research Foundation Charles Pankow Awardfor Innovation, recognizing collaborative design, development andconstruction efforts. They were honored for their research focused onmaking buildings more earthquake-resistant. They worked with WSPCantor Seinuk, Enrique Martinez, S.A. and Taylor Devices, Inc. todevelop a new system for bracing building walls which was appliedto Torre Major, the tallest office tower in Mexico City.

Department of Industrial and Systems EngineeringRajan Batta, professor and associate dean of graduate education,was invited to visit McGill University for the period May 1-5, 2006.He will be a visiting scholar in the Department of ManagementScience (School of Management), will teach a 10-hour short courseand also be working with a colleague, Vedat Verter, on an NSFproposal. Batta has also been invited to visit Tsinghua University forthe period Sept 25-29, 2006. He will also be a visiting scholar in theDepartment of Industrial Engineering (School of Engineering), willbe giving a seminar and also be working with a colleague, SiminHuang, on research/proposal writing.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCESDepartment of Oral and Maxillofacial SurgeryThomas S. Mang, clinical associate professor, was an invited lec-turer in a one-day symposium entitled “PDT in the 21st Century.” TheInternational symposium was held at the Royal Society of Medicinein London, England in April 2005. Mang’s lecture was on the Phar-macokinetics, Light Dosimetry and Future Pharmacological andTechnological possibilities in the field of Photodynamic Therapy.Mang was also the co-chair of a Photodynamic Therapy Summitheld in Montreal, Quebec, in June 2005. The International two-daysummit focused on the major scientific and clinical opportunities forthe modality of Photodynamic Therapy. In the symposium Mangspoke on the principles of light dosimetry in tissues and moderatedround table discussions focused on the implementation of Photody-namic Therapy in hospitals and clinics throughout the world.

SCHOOL OF NURSINGMary G. Carey, assistant professor, was invited to present on “Asso-ciation of Sustained Ventricular Arrhythmias with Transient Myocar-dial Ischemia in Patients Hospitalized with Acute Coronary Syn-drome” at the International Society for ComputerizedElectrocardiology Conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario,Canada in April 2006.

Denise Côté-Arsenault, associate professor, was invited to presenton “Making it Through Pregnancy after Loss: A Focused Ethnographyof Support Groups” at the Society for Applied Anthropology, whichis an interdisciplinary research conference between Medical, An-thropology, and Nursing scholars to be held in Vancouver, BritishColumbia, Canada from March 28 – April 2, 2006. At this confer-ence, she will also be a panel member regarding the presentationof a TV series of interviews with Dr. Linda Layne (Georgia MasonUniversity TV) on “Conversations about Pregnancy Loss”.

W. Scott Erdley, clinical assistant professor, was invited to present on“Nursing Informatics: A History of the Future” and Kay Sackett,

Clinical Associate Professor, was invited to present on “The WesternNew York regional electronic health record initiative: Healthcareinformatics use from the registered nurse perspective” at the 9th

International Congress on Nursing Informatics titled “Consumer-centered, Computer-supported Care for Healthy People” in Seoul,Korea from June 11 – 17, 2006.

Eris Perese, clinical associate professor, has been invited to deliver apaper on “A Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Program with InternetDistance Teaching” at the World Psychiatric Association, Interna-tional Congress in Istanbul, Turkey from July 12 - 16, 2006. PsychiatricNurse Practitioner Program with Internet Distance Teaching pro-vides the opportunity for nurses to prepare themselves for the role ofpsychiatric nurse practitioners and for national certification. The pro-gram prepares nurses to evaluate, diagnose, prescribe and monitorpsychotropic medications, and provide psychotherapy. The curricu-lum addresses psychiatric disorders across the life-span but the em-phasis is on management of psychiatric disorders of adults and olderadults. Clinical practica are provided in community settings such asAssertive Community Treatment programs, Behavioral Health Con-tinuing Treatment Centers, forensic units, emergency centers andprivate practice groups.

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH PROFESSIONSDepartment of Rehabilitation ScienceJohn Stone, clinical associate professor and director of the Centerfor International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange(CIRRIE), participated in the IV Inter American Conference onAssistive Technology for Persons with Disabilities held in Vitoria,Brazil, February 20-22, 2006. Stone presented a paper in Portugueseon “A Profile of Published Research in Assistive Technology, 1993-2002.” The source of data for this article was the database of inter-national rehabilitation research compiled by CIRRIE.

Machiko R. Tomita, clinical associate professor, presented her studyof “smart homes” to the Graduate School of Health Sciences atHiroshima University, Japan on December 27, 2005. The study was alongitudinal randomized clinical trial funded by the National Insti-tute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research (USDE) and wasawarded the best clinical science presentation from the UB School ofPublic Health and Health Professions in fall 2005. An additional pur-pose of her visit was to analyze the data for a joint study with theDivision of Nursing at Hiroshima University and Tokyo University. Thestudy, Cross-cultural caregivers for persons with Alzheimer’s disease:Japan vs. US, was funded by the Japan Society to Promote ScientificResearch.

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORKFilomena Critelli, assistant professor, had a paper accepted titled“Immigrants in a Post 9-11 World” at the International Federation ofSocial Workers World Conference to be held in Munich, Germanyfrom July 30-August 3, 2006.

Catharine Dulmus, associate professor and director of the Centerfor Social Research, has been appointed to the Council on SocialWork Education (social work’s academic professional organizationand the school’s accrediting organization) External Relations Com-mittee whose central foci are: 1) to promote a broad range of na-tional international partnerships between the CSWE and other or-ganizations committed to excellence in professional education forinternational social work; and 2) to strengthen the internationaldimensions, activities and fiscal integrity of CSWE’s newly launchedKatherine A. Kendal Institute for International Social Work Educa-tion. Dalmus co-authored a paper to be be presented at the 33International Congress of Schools of Social Work, Santiago, Chile inAugust 2006: “The evidence-based social work movement: Globalperspectives and challenges.”

Mansoor A. F. Kazi is research associate professor and director of

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Office of the Vice Provost forInternational Education(716) 645-2368, 645-2528 (Fax)[email protected]://www.buffalo.edu/intledProfessor Stephen C. Dunnett

Vice ProvostMr. John J. Wood

Associate Vice ProvostMs. Patricia Shyhalla

Director of Resource ManagementMs. Marvis Robinson

Financial Resource Officer

International EnrollmentManagement(716) 645-2368, 645-2528 (Fax)[email protected]. Joseph J. Hindrawan

Assistant Vice Provost and DirectorMr. Raymond Lew

Assistant Director

International Admissions(716) 645-2368, 645-2528 (Fax)[email protected]. Steven L. Shaw

DirectorMs. Elizabeth A. White

Assistant DirectorMs. Amy Matikosh

Admissions Advisor

International Student and ScholarServices(716) 645-2258, 645-6197 (Fax)[email protected]. Ellen A. Dussourd

DirectorMr. Mark P. Popiel, Esq.

Director of Immigration ServicesMs. Jennifer J. Chazen

Assistant DirectorMr. Eric E. Comins

International Student AdvisorMs. Diane Hardy

Staff AssistantMs. Mary Jean Zajac

Paralegal

Study Abroad Programs(716) 645-3912, 645-6197 (Fax)[email protected]. Sandra J. Flash

DirectorMs. Rhona D. Cadenhead-Hames

Assistant Director

Council on International Studiesand Programs(716) 645-2368, 645-2528 (Fax)Professor Barbara B. Bunker

Chair

Fulbright Program(716) 645-2181, Ext. 561; 645-5954 (Fax)Professor Patrick McDevitt

Fulbright Advisor

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the Program Evaluation Center. Kazi alsoholds a part time appointment with theUniversity of Hudderfield, England.) An ex-pert in program evaluation, he has beendoing program evaluation work in MorayCouncil, Scotland.

Robert H. Keefe, associate professor, pre-sented a paper in March 2006 co-authoredby Lane, S.D., Rubinstein, R.A., “Food is justdecoration: Urban retail food markets andhealth” at the annual meeting of the Societyfor Applied Anthropology in Vancouver,Canada.

Tom Nochajski, research assistant professor,is project coordinator for the Families’ Work-ing Together Research Project. This researchwas designed to evaluate the Strengthen-ing Families Program, initially developed byKarol Kumpfer, Ph.D. The program was re-vised by the Center for Addictions and Men-tal Health in Ontario. UB researchers thendesigned a study that was to be split be-tween alcoholic families in the United States(Buffalo metropolitan area) and SouthernOntario, Canada. Nochajski has directed aproject evaluating the use of the The Re-search Institute on Addictions Screening In-ventory (RIASI) for purposes of detecting in-dividuals at high-risk for DWI recidivism.RIASI is a screening instrument thatNochajski developed for use with the Drink-ing Driver Program in New York State. Theprovince of Ontario became interested inthe screening instrument and contacted himto assist them with implementation.Nochajski is also a lead investigator in theInternational Resilience Project (IRP), amulti-year international research studyfunded by the government of Canadathrough Dalhousie University in Halifax,Nova Scotia, Canada. The purpose of theIRP is to develop a better, more culturallysensitive understanding of how youth aroundthe world effectively cope with the adversi-ties that they face in life. The IRP is currentlybringing to a close the first 3-year phase ofthe research, in which the IRP piloted andintegrated innovative quantitative andqualitative research methods and collecteddata with over 1,500 children worldwide.

Patrick Shannon, assistant professor, pre-sented a paper “Meeting the needs of chil-dren with developmental disabilities in childwelfare” at the International Summit for theAlliance on Social Inclusion, Montreal,Canada in May 2006.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PROVOST FORINTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONStephen C. Dunnett, professor and vice pro-vost for international education, delivered aplenary address, “World-Class Educationand Internationalization,” at the Third In-ternational Conference on University Learn-ing and Teaching 2006 on March 14. Theconference was held at the Universiti

Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia, which partnered with UB in con-ducting a cooperative undergraduate edu-cation program in the 1980s. The conferencechair was Professor Zainab Noor, dean ofthe Faculty of Education at UiTM, whoearned her Ph.D. from the Graduate Schoolof Education (GSE) under Dunnett’s supervi-sion. Also presenting at the InternationalConference on University Learning andTeaching 2006 was Dr. Mary Gresham, deanof GSE, whose address focused graduateeducation in the United States. Dunnett andGresham also attended the first commence-ment for graduates of the GSE Master's Pro-gram in School Counseling offered at theCenter for American Education in Singapore. Dunnett delivered the opening plenary,“The Importance of InternationalizingHigher Education and the Role of Leader-ship in Making It Happen,” at the Interna-tionalizing Higher Education conference inWest Virginia, held in Charleston on April24, 2006. Dunnett was also a featured pan-elist. His presentation was titled, “Best Prin-ciples and Practices in Recruiting and Inte-grating International Students.” The confer-ence brought together policy makers andinternational educators from higher educa-tion institutions throughout West Virginia.

Sandra J. Flash, director of Study AbroadPrograms, has been appointed as a NationalSelection Panelist for the Gilman Interna-tional Scholarship Program which is admin-istered by the Institute of International Edu-cation (IIE). The selection panelists for theGilman scholarships meet annually in Mayto select scholarship awardees for the nextyear. Established by Congress in 2000, theBenjamin A. Gilman International Scholar-ship Program provides awards for U.S. un-dergraduate students who are receivingfederal Pell Grant funding at a 2-year or 4-year college or university to participate instudy abroad programs worldwide.

Raymond Lew, assistant director of interna-tional enrollment management, and AmyMatikosh, international admissions advisor,gave a presentation "Successful InternationalRecruitment Strategies" at the 92nd AnnualMeeting of American Association of Colle-giate Registrars and Admissions Officers(AACRAO) April 17-April 20, 2006 in San Di-ego, California.

Steven L. Shaw, director of international ad-missions, conducted a pre-conference work-shop titled “What Every CIEA Needs to Knowabout International Enrollment Manage-ment“ at the annual conference of the Asso-ciation of International Education Adminis-trators (AIEA) in San Diego, California Feb-ruary 22, 2006. The workshop provided anoverview of international student mobilitytrends and and outlined the steps in devel-oping and implementing a successful inter-national enrollment management plan. �

UB INTERNATIONAL

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SIMPSON PARTICIPATES IN U.S. SUMMIT ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

In early January, President John B.Simpson was one of a small groupof U.S. university presidents invited

to participate in a summit on interna-tional higher education convened bySecretary of StateCondoleezza Rice andSecretary of EducationMargaret Spellings.

Simpson was one ofonly several universitypresidents from NewYork State invited to at-tend, and the only onefrom SUNY.

The summit focusedon the future of interna-tional higher educationand its critical impor-tance to the national in-terest, with attention to such issues aseconomic development, public af-fairs, national security, U.S. scienceand engineering leadership, and in-ternational diplomacy.

In addition to hearing remarksgiven by President Bush; Spellings;Rice; Karen Hughes, undersecretaryfor public diplomacy and public af-fairs; and other leading public fig-ures, summit participants also had theopportunity to take part in smaller, fo-cused discussions organized aroundspecialized topics related to interna-

tional higher education issues.President Bush used the occasion

to unveil a new National Security Lan-guage Initiative intended to provideincreased federal support for trainingof teachers and programs of instruc-

tion in foreign languages such as Ara-bic, Farsi and Chinese that are criticalto the national security of the U.S.

Commenting on the summit,Simpson noted, "Much of the presscoverage I’ve read afterward has fo-cused on issues of national security asthey relate to international relationsand foreign language education, andindeed, they were among the impor-tant topics addressed at the summit.

"But I believe the most critical topicof discussion—one that itself has tre-mendous relevance to national secu-

rity and how the United States is per-ceived in many international loca-tions—is the important role interna-tional education plays in 'soft diplo-macy.'

"The international students andvisiting scholars and faculty who cometo the United States to study, teachand conduct research are an invalu-able cultural resource, serving to en-rich and broaden the horizons of ouracademic community. Academic ex-change and collaboration across cul-tural and national borders are enor-mously important to fostering good-will, building lasting diplomatic tiesand creating a culture of mutual un-derstanding and cooperation. It’s im-possible to overstate the importanceof those outcomes within the increas-ingly global economy we live in,"Simpson said. �

President Bush and Secretary Rice addressing the summit(Photo: U.S. Department of State)

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